Whether you’re a freelancer, a small business or a huge billion-dollar corporation, you need to have a good working relationship with your clients in order to keep the money rolling in month after month. With that in mind, let’s look at five ways businesses can keep things smooth and ticking over nicely with their clients.

Listen to What Your Clients Want

Every business wants to be able to upsell to their clients and make more money, but sometimes you have to build towards that and listen to what your client wants first and foremost. Listening and delivering on what they want will establish trust, and as time goes on you can start to push for more work. But in the meantime, tick the boxes they want you to tick and do it with passion and a smile.

Get a Payment Structure That Works

One thing that could create tension between you and your client is non-payment of invoices, or not having a payment structure in place so the work and the payments between the two of you and chaotic and not organized. This can be eradicated by having a schedule put into place, and for you to use an invoice system that can be repeated over and over again, so they know what it is and when to pay it as soon as it comes in. A free paystub maker is a good bet, as you can create, print, download and share them seconds after creating them, and you’ll have a system that works in place.

Get a Schedule in Place

In order for your business to keep delivering on what you’ve promised, you should look to set a schedule with the client so that they know what you’re working on at any given moment, and you can concentrate on getting it done on time and on budget. If you’re both kept in the loop, there shouldn’t be any trust issues from the client, and you can schedule in meetings and calls knowing that the work is being done.

Choose Communication Methods That Work for Both Sides

Communication is key to good client-business relations, but they have to be via methods that make sense to both sides. Some clients prefer to meet face-to-face, but if they are on the other side of the country, there may need to be other forms of correspondence to ensure that you have that connection with the client.

Technology is also a factor, as there isn’t much point setting up Skype calls with clients if they aren’t familiar with it and don’t really want to use it, and some clients would rather communicate solely by email and never have to speak to you over the phone. Find a happy medium and make sure you keep in touch on a regular basis, even if it’s just to check in.

Over-Delivery Whenever Possible

Whether your business sets its client, work hours, days, words or any other form, a great way to keep your clients sweet is to over-deliver a little. That doesn’t mean to work for free, just to go above and beyond for them at the moment. For example, if your client pays you for 16 hours of work a week, give them 17 hours where possible. If they are paying for 5,000 words of online content in 500-word articles, those articles don’t have to be 500 words exactly. Make them 580, 650, and make them the best they can be. Clients notice the little things, to deliver them.